Big Bash Lifts Australia's Game

With fancied teams crashing out, an unfancied one dominating the group stage and then crashing out itself, low scores and unexpected stars, it's been a fascinating advertisement for Australian cricket. But the implications of a tournament dominated by older or foreign bowlers may be less encouraging.

Second only in size to the Indian Premier League among T20 tournaments, the Big Bash in its current incarnation is only in its second season. For six years before that, it was contested by the traditional six Australian state teams, with Victoria winning four times. Since last season, they have been replaced by eight city franchise-based outfits, with Sydney and Melbourne confusingly given two teams each.

This season ends on Saturday, when the Brisbane Heat plays the Perth Scorchers in the final.

Before an unexpected 15-run semifinal defeat by the Heat on Tuesday, the Melbourne Renegades had looked favorites for the title after topping the table in the round-robin group stage with seven wins out of eight. That in itself was a surprise: The team has almost no big-name Australian players since its top stars are Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan and West Indian Marlon Samuels. Until the semifinal, everything went right for the franchise.

ENLARGE

Brad Hogg of the Scorchers celebrates the wicket of Travis Birt during the Big Bash match between the Hobart Hurricanes and the Perth Scorchers on Jan. 1
Getty Images

When Samuels was sidelined by an eye-socket fracture, his replacement, England T20 opener Alex Hales, flew in for the Jan. 9 game, away to the Sydney Sixers, got off the plane and immediately went and hit 89 off 52 balls with eight sixes.

In another reversal of expectations, the Sixers, last year's winner, with 12 current or recent internationals in its squad, was among the favorites for this year's tournament, but finished seventh.

In a bad season for Sydney, the only team to finish below the Sixers was the city's other team, the Thunder, which has eight international players, including the biggest T20 star of all. But Chris Gayle failed for once, with just 137 runs at 19.57 in his seven appearances—unbelievably, at a strike rate below 100. The suitably star-studded Melbourne Stars, meanwhile, was surprisingly eliminated by the Scorchers in a dramatic last-ball semifinal.

But the tournament's biggest surprise has been the primacy of ball over bat in so many of its matches. In the 2011-12 Big Bash, the average completed first-innings score—a more reliable comparison than the second innings, when the average is brought down artificially each time a chasing team wins—was 161.03. So far in 2012-13, it's been 148.96, a fall of more than 12 runs, or about 7.5%.

There was a similar drop in average score from the first season of the IPL, in India, to the second, in South Africa—in other words, from some of the most batting-friendly conditions in the world to some of the most challenging. This time, though, there's no obvious reason: The pitches are the same, the teams' line-ups aren't much different, and there have been no major rule changes.

There have been some fine bowling performances, many of them from overseas players. Three of the top five wicket-takers so far are foreigners: Muralitharan and the Stars' Lasith Malinga from Sri Lanka, and Perth Scorchers' Alfonso Thomas from South Africa. The only Australians in the top five are 36-year-old Thunder speedster Dirk Nannes and the tournament's leading wicket-taker, 30-year-old Hobart Hurricanes medium-pacer Ben Laughlin.

There has been no single batting star, but a few impressive performances. The Scorchers' Shaun Marsh, who topped the table with 396 runs at 66, has been a class act in all formats for years but has somehow never managed to cement his place in the Australian team.

The Renegades' Aaron Finch—Finch came close to replicating his stellar form in last year's competition with 332 at 66.40; he was rewarded with a One-Day International call-up, but has struggled in his two games against Sri Lanka. The Heat's run to the final, meanwhile, has been powered by some tremendous hitting from Luke Pomersbach, a sometimes troubled character who has had several disciplinary problems, but who scored 360 at 45 in the competition, including a spectacular undefeated 112 to win the semifinal against the Renegades.

Lying third on the batting list with 342 at 48.85 is Brad Hodge, who is 38 years old. The performances of older players has been one of the most heartening aspects of this year's Big Bash.

There have been a couple of vintage batting performances from 38-year-old former Australian captain Ricky Ponting to finish in the tournament's top 10 batsmen—for a while it was like having the genius of old back instead of the shadow who imitated him toward end of Test career. Four of the top six bowlers in the tournament have been the Scorchers' Brad Hogg (41), Muralitharan (40), Nannes (36) and Thomas (25).

There have been some other big pluses. The fielding has consistently been better than in much international cricket, and the tournament has gone off without a hitch: It is as well organized as any T20 league around the world.

Last year's inaugural season of the Bangladesh Premier League, for example, featured allegations of match-fixing, unpaid players and a double flip-flop over which team took the last semifinal spot. With the second season beginning on Friday, some players remain unpaid, while many others haven't received their contracts for the forthcoming season or the advance payment they were promised.

With talk of the Caribbean T20, which started Tuesday, also becoming franchise-based, and the Pakistan Super League due to launch in March, there's plenty of competition for a league like the Big Bash these days.

Irrespective of the action on the pitch, the tournament can differentiate itself with its organization—its lack of dubious ownership structures, wrangles between the board and the franchises, and players who don't get paid. It ought to be the minimum expected of a professional sports tournament, but it's a far from a given in the supercharged world of domestic T20.

Too often, the rush to cash in has obscured the fact that these are young tournaments that are still growing their own credibility.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.